Mexico's Federal Heath Ministry Eases Abortion Rules for Rape Survivors teleSUR
go to original March 19, 2016

Women and girls from Central America now expect rape on their way north to the United States - it’s just another step along the path to American dream. (Fusion)

Mexico's federal Heath Ministry made a small but significant change to its regulations last month, making it easier for a woman to voluntarily terminate a pregnancy that is the product of rape. Laws relating to abortion are the purview of state-level officials. However, abortion is legal throughout the country in cases of rape.

The National Advisory Committee on Standardization of Disease Prevention and Control changed Official Mexican Standard 046, known as NOM-046, which dictates how a legal abortion may be performed in Mexico. Whereas women were previously required to get judicial consent, the new regulation eliminates that requirement.

NOM-046 was the product of a drawn out case that went all the way to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission. That case dealt with the barriers experienced by a 13-year-old girl who was denied an abortion despite the fact that the circumstances of her pregnancy met the legal requirements.

...Mexico City is currently the only jurisdiction in Mexico where a woman may elect to end her pregnancy under any circumstance, up to twelve weeks into the pregnancy. Many other states have strict restrictions, with some having state constitutions that define life as starting at conception.

Read the rest at teleSUR

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